What is the French phrase for backward thought?

Baloo55th

Arrière pensée - literally backward thought - meaning in English use a hidden reservation, or a mental reservation about something. http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/a/a0437400.html May 24 07, 5:15 AM

Flem-ish

I would rather think of "idées arriérées". Or also: "pensée arriérée". May 24 07, 6:33 AM

libelma

(arriere pensee). is the one idees arrierees means; retarded ideas May 24 07, 7:54 AM

Baloo55th

"L'amitié virtuelle sans arrière pensée!" from www.belgiqueamities.be/ http://www.belgiqueamities.be/ May 24 07, 8:04 AM

Flem-ish

Arrière-pensée = ulterior motive. It all depends on context. If you mean "conservative thought" as in this context. http://indiainteracts.com/mobile/mcontent_member.php?pid=631&var=2 Indiainteracts ...then "pensées arriérées" is a possible translation as illustrated by this example in context. http://www.maisondudroit.org/CodePenal_versionFr/c12.htm Tables des matières. May 24 07, 9:14 AM

lanfranco

I think it's worth distinguishing between literal vs. idiomatic translation here. "Arriere pensee" is the literal French translation of "backward thought," but that's not really a meaningful phrase in English anyway. Idiomatically, the term means, as Flem-ish suggested, hidden or ulterior motive, and as Baloo suggested, mental reservation or doubt. If we really meant "backward thought" in English, we would probably use something like "hindsight." Even "memory" could be defined as "backward thought." May 24 07, 10:00 AM

Flem-ish

In other contexts - e.g. http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/features/forgiveness_formula_kathleen_griffin.htm Features - I think it might be rendered by: sans hésitation morale, sans un moment de scrupule. (Without moral reservation) I wonder if in that context sans arrière-pensée would be correct. May 24 07, 10:34 AM

lanfranco

Actually, come to think of it, we do sometimes use "backward thought" in the sense of moving forward without dwelling on something in the past --"never giving a backward thought" to something" -- but that's not the meaning of the French term. May 24 07, 10:36 AM

MonkeyOnALeash

pensée en arrière http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/index.html May 24 07, 2:44 PM

Flem-ish

The suggestion produced by MonkeyOnALeash's on-line "translator" can indeed be found back in real text. E.g. in http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/cinema/entrevues/2006/11/07/2265716-ca.html Réalisatrice de La Peau sur les os, après... - Hélène Bélanger-Martin: caméra choc | Entrevues | Cinéma | Canoë It is somewhat similar to "un regard en arrière", but much less frequent as a phrase. Of course one can have such phrases as "reporter sa pensée en arrière" but then the grammatical link of "en arrière" is with "reporter". May 24 07, 8:21 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

Hey! Once in a Great while those Online Translators do amount to something of use!!!! But not often! May 24 07, 10:22 PM